Real-World Examples
Highlighting initiatives that move us towards wholeness, co-intelligence, and wise democracy
The Convention of the Future Armenian
A society comes together and innovates a way of doing governance…
By Tom Atlee
This wasn't just another civil society event; it was the launch of a new chamber of governance
which didn’t rely on government but rather brought together citizens from Armenia and the Armenian diaspora to produce practical proposals that could be taken forward by a wide range of stakeholders and networks from all sectors of Armenian society.
This example from March 2023 represents a powerful example of citizen stakeholder integration.
[ READ ARTICLE ]
Polis & the Austrian Citizens’ Climate Council
Creating an Online Conversation Between a Nation and a Mini-Public…
By Andy Paice, CII Board member
In 2022 two CII colleagues, Martin Rausch and myself, were part of a big prototyping initiative on a national scale in Austria: linking a nationwide digital conversation to its citizens’ climate assembly.
This was a fantastic experience working to bring the groundbreaking digital democracy tool Polis with its capacity for fostering collective wisdom, for the first time to a national citizens’ assembly.
And the results were mixed…
Austrian Civic Councils
By Tom Atlee
One or two dozen randomly selected citizens are helped to really listen to each other’s ideas about a public issue in ways that lead to shared breakthrough insights about how the issue needs to be addressed.
The Maclean's “People’s Verdict” Experiment
Canadian Adversaries Take a Break to Dream…
By Tom Atlee
In 1991 Canada’s glossy weekly Maclean’s recruited 12 people who collectively represented the diversity of Canada and turned them over to a professional negotiation team from Harvard to come up with a vision for their divided nation within a long weekend. The road was very bumpy but they succeeded. More importantly, Maclean’s and a team from Canadian TV publicized the process in a way that engaged millions of Canadians in a vicarious experience of the event, generating nation-wide demand for more of this potent form of democracy. Read and watch the whole compelling story - along with an analysis of its power and limitations.
[ READ ARTICLE ]
A Citizen’s Jury in India
Development According To Whom…
By Tom Atlee
On June 25, 2001, twenty “marginal-livelihood” farmers, small traders, small food processors, and consumers—mostly women and mostly “untouchables”—converged on the village of Algole in India’s impoverished Medak District. They had come to participate in a Prajateerpu, a citizens’ jury or “People’s Verdict,” organized by two UK-based non-governmental organizations—the International Institute for Environment and Development and the Institute of Development Studies—along with The Andhra Pradesh Coalition in Defence of Diversity, the leading forum for discussing different agricultural options for the state’s future.
Taiwan’s democratic innovation for digital affairs
CII interviews Shu Yang Lin and Fang Jui Chang of vTaiwan…
By Andy Paice
Taiwan has been demonstrating what a future digital and participatory democracy might look like. In 3 separate articles we give an overview of what’s happening there and highlight the work of two of its protagonists.
[ READ ARTICLE ]
Wise Democracy Emerging
Curated stories from in the field, exploring initiatives and events that embody wise democratic innovation.
vTaiwan Polis Use Re: Uber
In 2015 4500 drivers and riders of both Uber and traditional taxis in Taiwan participated in a Polis exercise for a month that generated increasingly actionable agreements that were then worked over in an all-stakeholder dialogue that produced actual policies that left everyone satisfied.
UK Consensus Conference on Biotechnology
In 1994 fifteen randomly selected lay panelists studied the challenges of plant biotechnology, cross-examined diverse experts in a public forum, and then spent a full night together working out a very sophisticated consensus statement of how they felt the public would want such research to be handled. (Excerpted from Tao of Democracy)
Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil
Since 1989 thousands of citizens in Porto Alegre have participated in thematic assemblies, regional forums and elected city-wide meetings to suggest, review and decide on projects to be funded by a major portion of the city's discretionary budget - which has resulted primarily in significant increases in education and basic services to the previously least-served communities. Image Souce: Participedia
Vorarlberg Citizen Council on Asylum and Refugee Policies
In the midst of 2015’s massive influx of refugees into Europe, the Austrian state of Vorarlberg convened 23 randomly selected citizens who, with Dynamic Facilitation over 1.5 days, came up with a joint statement they submitted to community-wide discussions and then to a “responder team” of immigration professionals and public servants to guide implementation. (From Participedia)
The First Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review
24 randomly selected Oregon voters spent 5 days studying a ballot initiative to establish mandatory minimum sentences for certain major crimes, interviewed experts, advocates and opponents, and came up with a “citizens statement" describing reasonable arguments pro and con, and their own collective views, all of which was printed in the official Voter’s Guide - along with various paid statements for and against - distributed to all Oregon households.